| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: impressed man is generally liberated. But in Dall's case this
was peremptorily refused, and he was retained at the instance
of the magistrates. The writer having brought the matter
under the consideration of the Commissioners of the Northern
Lighthouses, they authorised it to be tried on the part of the
Lighthouse Board, as one of extreme hardship. The Court, upon
the first hearing, ordered Dall to be liberated from prison;
and the proceedings never went further.
[Wednesday, 4th July]
Being now within twelve courses of being ready for
building the cornice, measures were taken for getting the
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: waited, trembling, till it should please him to depart.
"Citoyenne," he said, after a long silence in which there was
something terrifying, "I am here to enforce the laws of the Republic."
Madame de Dey shuddered.
"Have you nothing to reveal to me?" he demanded.
"Nothing," she replied, astonished.
"Ah! madame," cried the prosecutor, changing his tone and seating
himself beside her, "at this moment, for want of a word between us,
you and I may be risking our heads on the scaffold. I have too long
observed your character, your soul, your manners, to share the error
into which you have persuaded your friends this evening. You are, I
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from McTeague by Frank Norris: over, look down into the huge amphitheatre full of light and
color and movement.
There rose to them the vast shuffling noise of thousands of
feet and a subdued roar of conversation like the sound of a
great mill. Mingled with this was the purring of distant
machinery, the splashing of a temporary fountain, and the
rhythmic jangling of a brass band, while in the piano
exhibit a hired performer was playing upon a concert grand
with a great flourish. Nearer at hand they could catch ends
of conversation and notes of laughter, the noise of moving
dresses, and the rustle of stiffly starched skirts. Here
McTeague |
